Training Wheels

The following article could just as well be applied to golfers using frying pans or cavity backs.

Well put! I hope golfing will be as easy as riding a bike, once learned! To such a degree, i can do it unconsciously like i do when im riding my bike while thinking what i am going to eat for dinner! :smiley: ie. Where i want this ball to go while swinging, instead of thinking mechanics!

Just gotta let it happen…and trust your training from what you have learned and built thru muscle memory.

That is a very good article Lag, and has some good nuggets in it perhaps. Thanks for finding and posting.

There are some that say we are always working against the club in order to remain in ‘balance’, perhaps defined as fluidity of movement for simplicity…yet others may feel working with the club is the ideal. Like the bicycle, we turn with the direction instead of fighting it the opposite way, because if we did it would tend to want to produce a straight line of travel for the bicycle. Like those motorcycle racers that scrape their knee into the low point of, and with, the curve instead of trying to fight it the other way to remain in balance.

Kinda reminded me of Golfbulldogs video of Hogan’s forward torso lean and squat…leaning with the direction instead of against it.

Good stuff again Lag, as always. :slight_smile:

Certainly a long putter anchored is a training wheel parallel.

So would be a bazooka frying pan driver taking away the fear of radical mishits.
Cavity backs also to a bit lesser degree.

Feedback, feedback, feedback.

I was at the range the other day and it was pretty crowded. I was fatigued and a little sore from ball beating the day before so I was having an off day with my xstiff Australian Blades. I just felt ‘old’ for lack of better word (happens more and more to me… ugh). My clubs felt like poles and hits were weak or worse… shanks.

Guy next to me is clearly not making solid contact just from the sound. I kept hearing ground first. During a breather I watch him a tad. Mid 30’s guy who looked average build and athletics. Steep OTT looking swing, hitting behind the ball a tad and sweep/flip release. But curiously he was hitting them straight at good enough distance compared to what you’d expect. I then notice his clubs, yep, HUGE shovels with sole width looking like two of my blades together. Looking at impact from side/behind him you could clearly see the club “skidding” the ground. The low center of gravity on clubface was then probably responsible for getting the ball up still rather than it being a worm rocket and perimeter weighting helping with any off-center strikes.

Yep, Ignorance IS bliss…

Not that I condone equipment that allows one to get around a course with that bad of a swing, but that guy could very well be breaking 90 while playing golf once every two months and a few range sessions for all I know. I am sure if not him there are many out there. To them that is enjoyment. Straight ball, high, near or onto green. With my clubs I kept thinking he would be lucky to get ball into air.

I have made good progress with playing blades as a beginner exclusively for two years now. But I also have remorse at times. It is exhausting working on my swing constantly so I can get the ball airborne with blades. And at times frustrating to the point of I wonder what more forgiving clubs would do for me. I think “who am I, turning 40 this year and trying to play blades”. I sometimes find myself browsing the bay for a deal on not shovels but something much better than blades. I have had range sessions that made me know I am on right path but also ones where I swear my clubs are going on ebay that night…

I read that Tom Wishon suggests that MB/blade PRO players give up about .5 to a full stroke a round to other professionals playing a more players cavity. A full stroke for PRO’s who can find sweetspot routinely! Man, How much do they cost a 10, 20+ hndcp?

So sure, training wheels may delay a child riding a regular bike a little longer, but in meantime they have no idea. They are just happy with huge smiles that they too can ride this same thing the big kids do (high handicapper happy just to be on green on full course). They eventually will get to point of riding without as they grow and their balance and coordination get better just with time (broke 80 with those CB’s). By time those kids who started with training wheels turn teenager, they will have completely forgotten about how horrible they first were on a bike. By then, they will have so much experience as well as physical adaption that they will be bike experts and pulling wheelies and riding no handed (shot par after years of work). NO DIFFERENT at that age than the kids who suffered through scrapped knees, bloody elbows and much crying because they skipped training wheels…

i should chime in on this seeing as i have an 8 year old and a 4 year old…

i think training wheels depend on the age. my son got a bike at i think age 3 and my daughter maybe younger (because she has
to have what her brother has). they both used training wheels, i can’t imagine they would have had the strength otherwise to handle
the bike as the bike weighed at least half as much as they did. it was easy to tell when to take them off…when they started getting bored with the bike.
this took about a year, although they ride pretty sporadically. once the wheels came off it took about 10 minutes to figure things out, within a
week they are doing hockey stops and jumping everything in sight.

just my opinion but i don’t think they were any better or worse for it.

now that being said, my kids started swim lessons at 6 months for safety reasons and have never had those floaty things on their upper arms. i think
they are much stronger swimmers because of it…

John I think you are missing the point. With training wheels we are preparing children for the more modern idea that effort & skill are better replaced with technology. Later, with age, comes wisdom - after years of riding in golf carts, ignoring exercise, we reward ourselves with the purchase of another set of training wheels - the HoverRound.
Why walk to the fridge? Just press your thumb and the gps system takes you there. By relying on technology to solve all of life ‘annoyances’ we soon won’t even have to use our thumbs, thought control will activate the fridge locating gps allowing us to cradle our BigGulp’s between our atrophied arms without interruption.

Perhaps technology may not have been that advanced back when training wheels were invented, but that’s all in the past. Improvements in virtual reality technologies will allow our children to not even leave the house to play a full round of golf indistinguishable from the real thing. Best of all every shot will be a perfect one.

In the meantime we can place handrails around the putting greens. Technology helping again.